"they all must go"...blogging anti-imperialist politics (with a Latin American focus) and converting kids to anarchism since December 14, 2005

Sunday, March 19, 2006

Selective Attention to Narcotrafficking

The BBC reports that:

The Colombian authorities have seized a shipment of cocaine with a street value of $540m (£300m) on board a ship in the Caribbean port of Cartagena....The cocaine was thought to belong to the main right-wing paramilitary group, the AUC.

Important to remember is that U.S. intervention in Colombia is largely predicated on the basis of the ever-successful "War on Drugs." Yet while the AUC is known for its involvement in narcotrafficking and is rightfully on the U.S. State Department's lists of terrorist organizations for its widespread human rights abuses, it's also widely believed by human rights groups to be linked to elements of the right-wing Colombian government itself - the same Uribe administration that receives more foreign aid from the U.S. than any government in the world, outside of Israel and Egypt. Not surprisingly, a close correlation between U.S. aid and human rights abuses is readily evident.

Now if only the FARC had done it, it would be of propaganda value to Washington.